Optical vacuum cleaner by optomechanical manipulation of nanoparticles using nanostructured mesoscale dielectric cuboid

Igor V. Minin, Oleg V. Minin, Yinghui Cao, Zhenyu Liu, Yuri E. Geints & Alina Karabchevsky

Here, we propose the concept of an “optical vacuum cleaner” for optomechanical manipulation of nanoparticles. We utilize a dielectric cuboid to generate an optical gradient force exerted on the nanoparticles for particle’s hovering and trapping. We show that the permittivity contrast between the particle and the nanohole leads to the deep subwavelength light confinement and enhancement at the opening of the nanohole located at the shadow surface of the particle. The proposed “optical vacuum cleaner” can be utilized in optomechanical manipulations on particles such as noble metal nanoparticles adsorbed on surfaces or controlling the particles taking part in cellular uptake.

DOI